Orion Test Flight

[Mynock]

So three guys are actually going to cram into that tiny little capsule for a trip all the way to Mars? Fuck that noise.

[Duncan Edwards]

So three guys are actually going to cram into that tiny little capsule for a trip all the way to Mars? Fuck that noise.

No the capsule is just for running into orbit and back to earth. There would be an additional spacecraft for travel to Mars. In spite of all the Mars talk there is no funded mission or even any funds to finish out the huge rocket that's actually going to be needed to launch it. The SLS or Senate launch system as it's known is nothing more than a big expensive space coast jobs program that was required to get a president elected. It's not even scheduled to fly on the next unmanned test until at least 2018. Currently it's going to be a big ass rocket to nowhere.

[Mynock]

Government efficiency at it's best. 5 years from now they'll have managed to accomplish what a private company is doing now. FAIL....

[DangerGirl]

I really wish they would have given this spacecraft another name. Every time I hear "Orion," I always think of Taylor's and Dyson's nuclear spacecraft project back in the 50s and 60s.

[kham]

<<<<------------ What Duncan said

Plus, don't forget, there's been very little aeronautics and space, in NASA for quite a while, sadly

DG, I'd bet money the weasels who came up with that, had EXACTLY that in mind

[Duncan Edwards]

I really wish they would have given this spacecraft another name. Every time I hear "Orion," I always think of Taylor's and Dyson's nuclear spacecraft project back in the 50s and 60s.

I always think of the "Orion" space plane from 2001 A Space Odyssey. It's a well used name. Anyhow it is now highly unlikely to make a crewed flight before 2020. There's not much chance of the highly publicized visit to an asteroid taking place before 2024. Elon Musk of Spacex says he will have begun his colony on Mars by then. It's really going to be interesting to see if the first people on Mars are under a corporate logo or the Chinese banner.

[kham]

Considering we could have gone in the 70s using Saturn V technology, it is somewhat wearing listening to some of these 'experts' re-inventing the wheel. I realize the average viewer of NASA vid these days has the intellect of a squirrel at best, but

To listen to the talk talk going on about the Van Allen Belt and how we need to 'learn' about them made me want to shoot him in the face. Every time we've flown through them with unmanned vehicles headed to the other planets, we get data. We flew manned missions through them, oh, lessee, on Apollo 8,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17......NASA? Smarten up. Plenty of us dumbasses you have no respect for likely know more about spaceflight and our planet than you do.

Now lets get the damn bird in the air

[kham]

T-27
Wx briefing complete, in the green for cloud cover, rain and winds

[kham]

T-9
Vehicle switching to internal power
MOCR poll complete, go

[kham]

Launch Control poll complete
GO
T-5